Finding cheap business class flights between London and New York with points or air miles

London to New York and vice versa is one of the busiest passenger routes in the world. Finding a great value and cheap business class flight between the two cities is a never ending challenge.

Over the years I've been collecting miles in several reward programmes. In total I have nearly 1M miles (subscribe in the sidebar for my next article when I'll explain how you can build a points balance like this as well) but they are mainly with Virgin Atlantic, British Airways and American Express. 

I will run you through the best routes which operate between Europe and New York - weighing up the realtive air miles costs and taxes due.  At the end, I'll explain why Virgin might infact be the best option for making use of your hard earned air miles.

StarAlliance

To kick things off, lets start with the StarAlliance. Although British Airways (BA) and Virgin Atlantic (VA) aren't part of this alliance, American Express points can transfer to several airlines in the alliance giving you access to any of the other airlines. As I don't have a huge number of American Express points I have kept this analysis of these airlines relatively short.

I haven't yet fully picked apart the Star Alliance mile upgrade options. However my initial investigations show that in some cases the number of miles needed upgrade can be more than the number required for a full miles booking! Many airlines also have different award charts for booking flights on their routes vs routes on partner airlines.

Lufthansa

I've had the pleasure of flying Lufthansa's new first class product and it's out of this world. If you have the opportunity to do so, don't pass it up. Their current business class product is pretty terrible though and has a crowded configuration with only angled seating. There is a new business class product being phased in which puts them on par with the other major airlines.

A first class return flight between Frankfurt and New York will set you back 170,000 miles, so it's a bit on the pricey side. A business class return is still expensive at 105,000 miles (in this instance, if you're planning to pay this many miles for a flight, pay the extra 65,000 for first class).

The other option is to upgrade your economy ticket with points, but an economy to business upgrade award is 50,000 miles each way. So you might as well get a business class reward flight for 105,000 miles. Also don't forget you'll get charged several hundred euros in taxes for any flight. You can see the full Lufthansa award chart here.

All in all, Lufthansa is a premium airline, and that is reflected in their high points and tax costs. You will see below there are some much better options for spending your money and miles.

SWISS

The new business class seat on SWISS.

SWISS is a very nice airline. I haven't flown them before but I would definitely like to. If you have points in Miles & More the availability of business class award seats is generally good. If you're booking through another partner airline I've found it can be sparse.

They operate two routes to New York from Geneva or Zurich.

Because SWISS is part of Lufthansa's Miles & More frequent flyer program, awards and upgrades come with the same high miles and taxes that Lufthansa's flights do.

United

United's hub on the east coast is Newark Liberty airport (EWR). They have a very regular service between London Heathrow and Newark. If you have miles with in United's MileagePlus frequent flyer program you can grab an award seat in business for 50,000 miles each way. The downside is that taxes for this flight when traveling out of London come to around $304. Not as expensive as British Airways but still not ideal. If you are flying the other way, from EWR to LHR, it is 50,000 points in business and only $2.50 in taxes. Not a bad deal at all.

Note that from Feb 1, 2014 the United award chart is changing and a one-way business award between the US and UK will rise from 50,000 miles to 57,500 miles. Best to get your award bookings in before then.

Oneworld

Oneworld is the main alliance which competes with Star Alliance. The number of airlines in the alliance is less in Start Alliance, but their is enough coverage to get you to pretty much anywhere in the world. Although the limited number of airlines may make it seem like award travel with points is harder, there are some clever tricks for saving taxes and getting great value per point with upgrades.

British Airways

BA's new 787 Dreamliner.

If you're flying to London, why not start your UK experience early by flying with BA. The airline is very well regarded and their Club World (business class) and First Class products are exceptional. Their frequent flyer program is called the Executive Club, but the points you collect are called Avios. Once you have a balance of Avios points, you can use them to book award flights or upgrade flights on a number of the oneworld alliance airlines.

British Airways flies a lot of people between London and New York. They have two particularly interesting routes. First is the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet they are flying between London (Heathrow) and New York (Newark).

Or, the more exciting option: BA Flight 001 between London (City) and New York (JFK).

British Airways flight BA001 is a very special route. They are using the old flight number of the Concorde and the aircraft is a smaller A318 with only 32 seats, all lie-flat Club Word (business class). The experience is very exclusive and upon leaving London City Airport, the flight stops off to refuel at Shannon, Ireland where you go through US immigration, before taking off again and arriving at the domestic terminal in JFK. Jaunted has a review of the experience here. 

If you're flying Club Word, BA also has great lounges at Heathrow, City and JFK.

So how do you get yourself a great value seat on one of these flights? You could use your Avios to book a Club World seat for 100,000 points return. But you will still need to pay up to £500 in taxes just for departing from the UK.

Instead, the best value option is to use your Avios to upgrade your seat. It's great value to buy a premium economy ticket for around £750-£1,000 return, and then upgrade it to Club World for only 20,000 Avois return. Buying a Club World return will typically set you back more than £1,900. So this with your 20,000 points are buying you around £1,000 in additional ticket value. This means your points are worth about 5 pence each, which is way above the 1 pence value many people place on points.

Air Lingus

Air Lingus is an Irish airline which flies regularly between Ireland and the US. They are part of the oneworld alliance so you can make bookings with Avios, but unfortunately they cannot be made online via BA.com. Instead you must call up the BA Executive Club call center and make your booking over the phone. The number for your local center can be found here.

The great thing about Air Lingus award bookings is that Dublin to Boston is just below the 3,000 mile mark distance wise and therefore squeezes into a lower tier of award tickets than most other routes like London to New York (or Dublin to New York).

This mean a Dublin to Boston return award ticket only costs 50,000 Avois in business. Economy is just 25,000 return. This is probably the best value Avios award ticket out there.

Finding a business class seats on the Dublin to Boston route is sometimes a little hard as it's a popular one with award travellers. Your best bet is to sign up for ExpertFlyer.com (it's worth the $99 a year) and setup a flight alert for a few Dublin to Boston flights you'd like a seat on. Economy availablility is usually pretty good so another option is to first get yourself an economy steat, setup an ExpertFlyer altert and then switch to a business seat if it comes up.

airberlin

Airberlin is a low cost carrier based in Germany which also serves several long haul routes. They have a reglar Berlin to New York service. It can be booked online at BA.com and costs 80,000 Avios return in business. The nice thing is taxes are much lower than BA Club World, so if there's availability it's a good alternative to Air Lingus.

Iberia

Similar to airberlin, Iberia is another alternative with low taxes. Their Madrid to New York route is 80,000 Avios return in business class and only £149 in taxes. But, this is only the case if you book directly through Iberia.com. If you book the flight through BA.com (which is possible) they will charge you over £500 in taxes for the same flight. 

Iberia and BA have a special Avios partnership which allows you to transfer Avios points between your BA and Iberia frequent flyer accounts. It is free to do this, but to be able to your BA and Iberia accounts must have both been active for at least 3 months. If you don't yet have an Iberia account, sign up here and start the clock ticking. 

My favourite option: Virgin Atlantic

In my opinion, Virgin Atlantic is one of the best airlines out there. They are very modern and forward thinking. They only serve a limited number of routes worldwide, but they do them well. Their business class product is called Upper Class and is somewhere in-between business and first class. Seats covert into beds, with ample space. The entrance and lounge experience at London Heathrow is incredible. There is a private entrance at the airport which your car can take you to and you avoid the all the usual headaches of an airport entirely. You are handed your boarding passes as you step out of the car and are whisked through a private security line and into the lounge. Virgin's lounges are a a world apart - excellent food, service and great places to spend any amount of time.

For some time I've been booking economy fares (around £500 return between London and New York) and upgrading either one or both legs to upper class with miles (20,000 each way) and finding it great value. Only recently I saw the folks at MileCards analyised the best value cash and miles business class deals available, and they found that this strategy is one of the best bang for you buck and miles. An Upper Class fare between London and New York will usually set you back around £2,000, so with this upgrade you're getting an additional £1,500 in ticket value for 40,000 points (20,000 points for an upgrade each way). This is giving you around 3.8 pence in value per mile which is terrific value.

An even better strategy is to buy a premium class fare (around £750 return) and push it to upper class with only 10,000 miles each way. With this method you're getting an additional £1,250 in ticket value for only 20,000 miles which works out at 6.2 pence in value per mile. I can't think of a better use of miles out there.

You can see the full analysis of miles uses by MileCards here.

Summary

There are a multitude of ways you can use your hard earned airline points. Some strategies will stretch them further than others. In general, it's better value to use your points for upgrades instead of trying to find free tickets. The taxes imposed by most airlines in the UK make free tickets hard to find. The exceptions are Air Lingus, Iberia and airberlin who have very low taxes and can be booked with Avios.

My recommended route for using your Avios, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points or American Express Membership Rewards points is to buy premium economy tickets on British Airways or Virgin Atlantic flights and then upgrade these to Club World or Upper Class seats with your points. Using this method you can make your points buy you over 6 pence in value per point.

If you have any feedback or questions, please drop me a line: info at flyingshotgun.com.